This untitled piece of concept art by BIONICLE co-creator Christian Faber is a teaser poster for the 2004 BIONICLE film that would eventually become BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui.

There’s so much to say about this poster. This depiction of Metru Nui is incredibly far removed from the City of Legends we ultimately came to know. It’s far clearer in this concept that Metru Nui is beneath the island of Mata Nui, an underground city of bizarrely smooth structures, almost organic in appearance and stretching ever deeper. Given the location, they may have been intended to resemble synapses in the Great Spirit’s brain.

The lighting makes me think that this city isn’t quite abandoned. It may be dark and dreary, but a fire still burns in the buildings. Magma pours down from the central structure’s perch. The underground city is very much alive.

And then there’s that intriguing text — Metru Nui: The Key to the Legend. In Theatres Fall 2004. I can’t find the exact source, but my understanding is that there was an intention at this point for the Metru Nui arc to serve as both the prologue and the epilogue to BIONICLE, ending the story after four years. It sounds like this would have shown the Matoran’s lives in the era before they came to live on the island of Mata Nui as well as their triumphant return (and presumably the reactivation of) the Great Spirit Robot. Of course, we’d be waiting another four years to learn the secret, but it’s still fascinating to think how different the story of BIONICLE could’ve turned out.

You can find more of Christian Faber’s work here.